Why Do I Love Him?
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: Post Jak 3. Keira finds herself wondering why, even if, she loves Jak. JxK, TxD mentioned. Rated for nudity.
1. Chapter 1

Well, I hope this one turns out well enough to be liked. It is my first attempt at a story of this level. I also hope it will not be like anything else you've ever read under this game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Jak and Daxter, or any of the characters in this fiction.

Keira

Keira sighed.

She sighed again.

"This isn't working," she mumbled. She set her wrench back on the table, threw a tarp over her latest project, and put her face mask on a hook on her tool rack.

She left the garage and walked home slowly. No, that wasn't quite right. It wasn't home. It was just her place of residence.

They say that home is where the heart is. Keira didn't know where her heart was currently.

It was probably out with Sig, shooting Metal Heads and gaining acclaim as a powerful warrior. Or maybe it was at the Naughty Ottsel, having a drink and enjoying old battle stories with friends, Ashelin probably listening to his with rapt attention. Most likely it was in the desert, driving around and enjoying the wind whipping past as that seemed to be what made him the happiest.

Speaking of Ashelin, Keira wanted to be angry at her for trying to move in on him, jealous of her for getting to spend so much time with him, wanted to cry because she took his first kiss when she herself so desperately wanted that for herself. But she couldn't.

Ashelin was a good warrior, a good leader, and a good person. She may be strict, but she would never follow in her father's footsteps. She may have feelings for him, but she wasn't evil. She may have kissed him, but she wasn't trying to ruin Keira's life.

Keira crossed her arms, a frown adorning her face as she thought again of how Ashelin took his first kiss. Even though she couldn't be mad at the new barron, she could still be angsty about the situation everyonce in a while.

She sighed once more and let her hands fall to her sides.

"Thinking about it isn't helping anything," she said aloud.

When she finally got to her apartment in the slums she was in a thoroughly depressed mood. She had gone over the many times she and him had shared moments of contention and enjoyment. She also remembered the times that he and Ashelin had shared moments of the same kind.

She decided to take a shower to clear her head and wash the smudges of oil off her face and arms.

As she stripped down she began comparing her own body to Ashelin's. Her breasts were at least two bra sizes smaller than Ashelin's, her hips were wider almost to the point of freakishly large in her opinion while Ashelin's were perfect, Ashelin's face beautiful while hers was at best pretty, and let's not forget that Ashelin was one of his fellow warriors while Keira was merely a slightly tomboyish mechanic with a thing for racing.

Quite suddenly her thoughts moved to why she loved him.

She wasn't quite sure how she came to love him, but she did. She also knew that it wasn't some kind of fake romance that you'd find in most movies, books, and even some video games where the lead character and the romantic interest got together because of a series of dramatic and frightening events forced them into a feeble at best relationship because the main rescued or was rescued by the interest. Sure she herself had been saved by him more than once and it did make her feelings for him grow, but she loved him before Daxter even fell into that vat of Dark Eco turning him into a Precursor.

She stepped into the shower at last as she began going over the features that made him attractive to her in hopes of finding why she loved him. Maybe to prove to herself that she actually didn't love him but just held him in high regard.

The first fact was of course the fact that he was not hard on the eyes, his body covered in lithe muscle and a nice tan, his hair a mix of golden blonde and forrest green, his eyes a blue color that you could easily lose yourself in. Second was his courage, he was never afraid of anything and always willing to help out for a good cause... even if it meant doing bad deeds to achieve the good goals. Third had to be his attitude, when he was younger his boyish innocence and curiosity, recently how he seemed to be able focus so heavily on fighting, but could still cool down and have some fun. Fourth had to be his ability to handle damn near any situation thrown at him.

"But none of those make me love him," she mumbled to herself as she began to lather her hair, "They wouldn't be bad reasons, but they arn't _the_ reason."

She tried to go over all her memories since she first met him so long ago in Sandover Village till where she was now, but she still couldn't put her finger on the reason why. She was beginning to think maybe it was just a crush. That, like she had hoped earlier, she really didn't love him.

"Maybe I don't love him," she tried admitting aloud as she began srubbing her body, but it left a painful knot in her heart that told her that was absolutely not true.

Then a thought occured to her.

"Maybe... I don't know because... I'm not the one who can make him happy," she said, her raspy voice cracking with sorrow a thousand times more painful than her previous assumption. But this one was worse... because it might be true.

She rinsed off and stepped out of the shower. She dried herself off, dressed in clean clothing, and left the bathroom. She sat on her couch and just stared at her wall, pondering about the times she had made him smile that smile that had never changed over the years. A few tears leaked out of her eyes as she began to realize she may have only ever caught his attention as a friend.

She wiped them away and tried to take comfort in the fact that she was even that close to him. If just one of an endless amount of moments in time were changed they would probably have never even met.

Part of her tried to tell her that if they had never met that perhaps she wouldn't be so sad right now.

She immediately squashed that part down. She knew for a fact that, even if she was sad right now, just knowing him made her a thousand, no a million, times better than she ever feel if she never met him.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a loud anxious knocking.

She got up, opened the door, and was surprised to see Daxter standing their a highly worried look on his face.

"Keira! Jak's been hurt!" Behind the ottsel Jak was layed out on a hover car moaning in pain, "I tried to take him to a hospital, but he kept telling me to bring him to you!"

Keira raced out of her apartment, Daxter hot on her heels. She began checking him for injuries when she noticed the discoloring on his left hand.

"Oh my god! What happened, Daxter?" she asked as she lifted the groaning Jak to his feet, pulling one of his arms over her shoulders to help support him.

"Jak and I were exploring the mines, trying to make sure all the Metal Heads were gone before any of the paleo-guys came down to check them out. I had just taken out one of the biggest baddest Metal Heads you've ever seen," Keira knew he was lying, but it was part of him so she ignored it, "and I was caught off guard by a Scorpion. Before it could get me Jak pushed me out of the way, but it stung him on his hand. At first he was fine, but after we made it out of the mine he collapsed."

Once inside, Keira put Jak down on the couch and turned to Daxter.

"Dax, I keep a storage of Green Eco in my garage at the race tracks in case I get hurt tinkering with the bikes. I need you to go get some for Jak as fast as you can," She had moved to her small kitchen and was preparing a bowl of water and a wash cloth.

"On it!" he said and ran for the door shouting out, "Hang on, Jak! I'll be back before you know it!"

Keira came back into the living room and placed the wet wash rag on Jak's forehead then went to get a thin blanket. She came back and stripped him to his boxers carefully, trying not to blush at seeing him in such a state. She placed the thin blanket over him and it seem to soothe him a little.

"K... Keira," he groaned weakly.

"I'm right here, Jak, you just hold on till Daxter gets back," she told him in a soft tone. She took one of his hands in her own and squeezed it gently to let him know she was there. He squeezed back weakly.

Another ten minutes and Daxter came back with the Eco. Keira pushed it into his flesh near his heart to speed up the healing process.

"It's gonna take a while for it to completely clear out the poison. Why don't you go home. I'm sure Tess would be glad to hear that you're alright," Keira told Daxter. He just nodded and headed out of the door, still clearly worried for his best friend.

Keira walked over to the couch to keep a vigilant watch over Jak.

After a small amount of debate within herself she decided to move on to the couch with Jak's head resting on her thigh. Even if she wasn't the one that could make him truly happy she could at least pretend for a little while that she was.

Just little bit later Jak woke up.

"Keira?" he still sounded weak from the poison.

"I'm here, Jak. We gave you some Green Eco to cure the poison. You're gonna be okay."

Jak grinned, his eyelids dropping half shut, "You always did know how to make me feel better, Keira. That's why I love you."

At first, shock. Mind numbing shock at his admission. Then it turned into an explosion of glee and happiness that, had Jak not been using her thigh as a pillow, She probably would have jumped up and down in celebration.

"I love you too, Jak," she said softly to him. She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

He grinned once more before falling unconscious again.

With how happy Keira now felt she almost found it impossible that she could have had such dark thoughts about her relationship with the Eco Warrior earlier in the day. Amazing how one sentence completely changed her mood.

And it was then that she knew why she loved him.

"Because he always makes me feel better too," she smiled, stroking his hair.

--- End ---+

A/N: OK, there you go. I hope you like it. I'm not sure if I will, but I might continue this beyond this chapter. You'l just have to wait and see how it plays out.


	2. Chapter 2

Hmm, Lessee lessee, apparently the first wasn't too bad. Maybe I'll wirte the second with Jak as the main focus.

Jak

Jak watched Keira with a somewhat longing gaze.

Keira was working on one of the racing zoomers, intent on building the best high speed vehichle out there.

Jak wished he could find happiness in something as simple as taking apart and reassempling machinery. Wished he could have the time to do something other than fight off Metalheads or Dark Precursors or what ever the hell else the universe might throw at him. Wished he could just settle down and be with a certain mechanic till the end of their lives.

Jak was not afraid to admit that he had deep feelings for Keira, loved her really, at least not infront of her. He wasn't afraid that some enemy would come and take her away to use as some sort of living shield. He wasn't afriad because he knew that he'd bust in and rip whoever would be daring enough to harm a single hair on her beautiful little head to shreds... without even touching his darker side.

No, he would never be afraid of the possibility that an outside force might take Keira away. It was much more likely that Keira herself would just leave him of her own accord.

Of course she couldn't really _leave_ him since they weren't..._ together._ But Jak felt that if Keira were to ever have a lover other than himself his own hard heart would break.

"Stop starin' at her ass, Jak. She'll notice sooner or later," Daxter suddenly said to him, startling him slightly, "Probably sooner."

Jak flicked Daxter on the back of his small fuzzy head, "Shouldn't you be _monitoring_ Tess?"

Daxter ignored the flick to his head and turned away with his arms crossed, "No, I don't need to watch her all the time..."

"... She made you leave again, didn't she?"

Daxter slumped, his arms falling to his sides once more, "Can I help it if I'm worried about her?"

Jak gave a slight grin to his best friend and rubbed his head encouragingly.

Jak had always known Daxter to be a bit of a... well, he didn't want to call him a coward so worry-wart seemed about right. It seemed only amplified when Tess became pregnant. Now he was like a gerbil on speed, antidepressants, caffeine, and sugar being chased by a cat. He'd nearly dragged the young Precursor mother to be to the hospital for a _sneeze_ of all things.

"Maybe you should just trust her to know what she's doing? She's not entirely helpless, you know," Jak told him.

Daxter grinned turning back to Jak, "Do I ever. She's got one hell of a right hook, that's for sure," Daxter began rubbing his chin on the left side in rememberance of one rather vicious mood swing. She went from loving to 'Kill the Male' in no time flat.

Jak chuckled, having been privy to that little scene as it unfolded, though even he wasn't quite sure what his ottsel friend had said to upset Tess.

"Ya know, if you man up a little bit, one day you could be just like me with Keira," Daxter said, nudging Jak with his elbow and wiggling one eyebrow suggestively. Jak didn't blush, much as one would expect on recieving such a veiled lewd comment.

Instead he sighed, "But what if she doesn't want that, Dax? Or if she does, but not from me?" he placed his arms behind his head and looked up.

"Your call, buddy," Daxter seemed to drop the subject right there, "But just immagine what it'd be like, havin' her all to yourself, moaning your name. 'Oh, Jak. Jak I want more. Give me more, Jak,' " the ottsel began to immitate Keira's voice.

Now Jak blushed, partially because he had immagined just such a scenario in a waking dream and mostly because the object of said dream was within ear shot.

He flicked Daxter on the back of the head again.

"Cut it out, Dax, or I'll tell Tess who's been stealing her mint peanut butter cookies," Jak said, his blush gone.

"Alright, alright! No need to do anything hasty now," Daxter said, suddenly afraid and holding his hand up infront of him waving back and forth.

Jak just grinned. He'd always have something to get Daxter off his back.

Same could be said for Daxter though.

The Precursor gave an almost predatory grin, now that his friend was back to looking at the mechanic, "But when it does happen, make sure to use protection."

"Daaax," it was little more than a growl.

"Right then. Gotta go. See ya," and the small orange animal ran out of the garage as fast as he could, only looking back once to give Jak a suggestive wink.

Jak sighed a little in exasperation. He wondered briefly how they had gotten through that whole conversation without Keira hearing any of it. For surely if she had she too would have been willing to string the rat up by his tail.

Jak went back to thinking about things he wished he could have instead of the next adventure that was sure to come, most of them involving the blue-green haired woman, his eyes drifting to her again.

"So, you ready to take the zoomer for a test drive?" Keira asked, startling him once more.

"Always ready," Jak replied, a cocksure grin in place.

"Good. Let's set up some boost rings," Keira ambled over to a holo projector. She pulled up a grid of Haven city and decded to test it out in the broken down regions. She poked the hologram at a few seemingly random spots on the map then pressed a green button on the projector.

"Boost rings applied to designated areas. Termination of rings in five hours," a robotic voice came out of the projector.

Jak then helped Keira load the zoomer onto a transport and got in the driver's seat.

It took them only a few minutes to get to the abandoned sections of the city.

Jak parked the transport, unloaded the zoomer, and got on it.

"Let's see what this baby can do," Jak was about to rev the engine when he felt someone climb on behind him and slide their arms around his waist, "Uh... Keira, what are you doing?"

"I need to see first hand how the zoomer handles the terrain and sharp corners and I can't get that from just a report. You don't mind, do you?" She gave him a smile that made any protests he may have had die before they could even really reach his mind.

Jak grinned once more and replied, "'Course not. The added weight might be a little extensive, but I can handle it."

"Hey!" Keira exclaimed and punched him on the arm, "Just get started."

Jak suppressed a chuckle and revved the engine once or twice before taking off.

The moment he hit the first ring the Zoomer shot forward as if he had hit a turbo. He carefully swereved around the sharp corners, dodged any jagged debris left over from the two wars that hit Haven city, and jumped over a fair share of bottomless pits. He particularly liked it when the corners were very sharp, forcing Keira to hold him tighter. By the end of it he was thoroughly impressed with the new model.

"You keep makin' these things any sweeter and I may have to keep you around," Jak said jokingly to Keira.

"Really? Only like me for my bikes, huh?" she had her hands on her hips and her left eyebrow raise, a smile twitching at the corners of her lips.

"Well, you might not be hard on the eyes either," Jak said, suddenly feeling flirty.

Keira had a light tint to her cheeks, but ignored it in favor of continuing this little game, "Same could be said for you, pretty boy," Jak blanched at the thought of being a bishounen, "But I get the feeling you aren't telling me the whole reason you want me around."

Having quickly recovered from the pretty boy comment, Jak smirked and said, "Well, you are pretty good with upgrading weapons," he lifted one finger, "Your voice has a very sexy rasp to it," he lifted another on the same hand, "You just might be the most beautiful girl I've seen since before a can remember," he lifted a third finger, taking a quick glance at Keira, glad to see her grinning, "And maybe, just maybe, it makes me happy havin' you around."

Keira took a few steps toward Jak, placing her right in front of him, a somewaht predatory grin in place, "And maybe, just maybe, it makes me happy to be around." Jak, leaning against the zoomer, couldn't back away from Keira, not that he really wanted to.

As Keira leaned closer to him he decided he might as well say something to seal his fate with her, either she'd leave him or she'd stay, but at least she wouldn't be the last to know how he felt.

"And maybe, this just a very small chance by the way," Jak may not have noticed it, but Keira was giving him every ounce of her attention, "I might l-love you." He cursed himself for stuttering. He'd faced down Gol and Maia, the Metalhead leader and his hordes, and Erol and the Dark Precursors... but he couldn't tell the girl he loved her with out stuttering? He needed to rethink the intimidation factor that his enemies really had.

Keira however, had been waiting for this moment for three weeks, ever since the stint with the scorpion sting. Jak didn't remember telling her, having only been half awake when he said it, so it was expected he would eventually tell her again.

"Well, that's good," she said, grabbing the fabric of his tunic and pulling him down as she leaned up, "Because I'd hate to do this to someone who didn't love me." And she kissed him.

To Jak it felt like the world had just dropped away and he was floating through the stars. It just felt heavenly... no more words, just heavenly.

Keira would say much the same once Jak regained his composure and kissed her back.

When they finally pulled out of the kiss to breathe Keira put her head against his chest, listening to his heart, then grinned such a grin that had Jak seen it he would have feared being devoured.

"Daxter was right, ya know?"

"What do you mean?"

"We might need protection, if we go any further," Keira said, pulling away from his chest to wink at him suggestively just as Daxter had when he'd left the garage.

Jak almost choked, realizing that she'd heard the conversation he'd thought had some how passed her by earlier. Keira just laughed at him before leaning in to kiss him again. Jak kissed back, thanking any higher force that was listening for letting him have the one he wanted.

I'd say that Jak and Keira lived happily ever after... but Jak still has some work to do.

--- The end---+

A/N: OK, yeah, basically this is the end of this ultra short story, but only because I can't think of anything more to right under this title. I am however generating another Idea for the Jak and Daxter that is subtely working it's way into something readable, but I don't know when it'll be ready. Till then think of this as it's prequel... in a sense it is. By the way I am completely skipping over the events of Jak X because I have yet to play that one. See ya when the tide comes in.


End file.
